Bloody Angels
by Thefallenheart
Summary: A Chapter Master with the Black Rage, an annoying Inquisitorial investigation, a schism amongst the Astartes, badly written reports and reminiscing about the good old days of slaughter and belligerence and carnage.
1. Chapter 1

The planet was one of the one hundred and two terra-formed under the direct orders of the Primarch Sanguinius. The Divisio Terrafomicum of the Adeptus Mechanicus completed their, much delayed, work towards the end of the thirty-forth Millennia and was promptly taken over by Blood Angels who gave it to one of their descendent (Tenth Founding) chapters the Crimson Tears. The Chapter prior to this had been for the most part a wandering fleet based chapter and in this time developed close links with their mechanicus allies often accompanying the explorator fleets in their eternal search for long buried STC remnants.

The new world, Cynfyd, that they found was quickly turned into a productive, if somewhat boring, agri-world in accordance with their angelic founders plan. The main continent was named Heartland and the northern continent, a place of bitter tundra and polar ice caps, was called Coldforge. From space Heartland looked like one colossal field that provided more food than the meagre population could ever consume and quickly became praised for ending famine on a number of neighbouring worlds. The Continent of Coldforge, however, was for the most part best ignored.

The planet is slightly more massive then the Terran norm with a gravity of 1.2 Grav-marks. The atmosphere is slightly thinner than Standard but this difference is negligible. A day lasts twenty-six hours and given the slightly increased size of the planet the prevailing winds proved ideal for the growing of most crops along the Eastern coast of the Heartlands. The much drier Western side of the continent is reliant on a vast irrigation system. The planet has three moons. The first, is slightly larger than lunar, is called **Morwynol. It is a slightly blueish colour due to the abundance of certain copper compounds. The second is about half the size of Lunar and is called **Ffraid and is green and yellow in hue because of the sulphides that are predominant on its surface. The last is slightly larger than Phobos and is a deep, deep red (Ironoxide. Quite a mystery considering there is no real amount of oxygen on that moon) and is refered to as Hen Wrach. Regardless of what mineral wealth might be found on those satellites the local mechanicus have refused point blank to set foot upon them and have done just about everything short of physical violence to prevent anyone else from doing so.

Given how well connected to the local chapter they are no one has tried to push them on this one.

The equilibrium of matter on the planet is kept constant as regardless of how much bio-matter is taken of the planet in the form of crops and regiments there is always at least an equal amount being put back by the asteroid miners who are charged with the responsibility of constantly pummelling the planet with the gravel, that burns up in the atmosphere, that is a by-product of their asteroid strip mining efforts.

The kupiter belt of the system is left well alone by all but the foolhardy. Any one approaching the system tends to do so perpendicular to the solar plain for this very reason. The reason for this is a very good one. The kupiter belt is the spawning ground of Voidwhales and Spacekraken. Both are treated with reverence and awe and fear as they easily devour most in-system ships and are capable of taking a sizable chunk out of most warp-capable ones and have been the reason for at least one failed ork Waaaaaaaaaagh!!!. Contact and communication has been attempted with the void travelling creatures on numerous occasion and none have yet been successful.

The Fortress-Monastery was built in the approximate centre of the landmass and quickly became the heart of the planets capital and only city Stonehold. The Fortress-Monastery eventually encompassed the Governors Palace, the local branch of the Schola Progenium, the Schola Psykana and the Adeptus Astra Telepathica.

The colonising population were extracted from a wide variety of places. A fifth from Cadia, a tenth from Kanak, a fifth from Catachan, a twentieth from Necromunda (primarily the under-hive of Hive Primus) and the remaining forty-five percent from any number of place not least of which the under-streets of Holy Terra itself.

It was from this population that the chapter recruited and was eventually shaped as the ratio of old veterans and new recruits shifted inevitably in favour of the latter.

The reason for this wide mix of gene-stock is an attempt by the Adeptus Mechanicus to create a naturally hardy race of people by extracting the best available aspects of the human gene pool. Heroic physique (Kanak, Catachan), resilience to infections (Holy Terra, Necromunda, Catachan), predisposition towards orderly and disciplined behaviour (Cadia) and a whole host of other more subtle genetic variations from a host of other places. Like most things of this nature the Mechanicus were logical, diligent and meticulous and completely screwed up in a monumental way as the first settlers nearly declared a war of genocide upon each other during the first two years. It was one more instance where logic should have been substituted with common sense.

The religion of the planet is as varied as the population it is made up of. Those of Necromundan Ancestry tend toward being worshipers of the Thorian sect of the Emperor Ascendant (with an ignorable faction of the Unification sect). The Cadians are universally, or at least started out so, Aquilla Primus. The Kanakians are split fifty fifty between an obscure form of ancestor worship and the death cult (the dividing line between those two has always been universally blurred). The religion of the extracted Catachans is… unrecorded. All attempts to accurately document it have been met with fierce opposition and threats of broken limbs. The Administratum are not _quite_ that curious. The remainder of the population seems to have adopted these as their own or has retained their own beliefs in small covens and cabals. Further attempts at documentation have proven hazardous to the health of the overly inquisitive. It was reported that during the early days of habitation there was much religious upheaval and only the threat of execution with _extreme_ prejudice by the Astartes kept the planet from devolving into complete and utter anarchy. Indeed it was darkly alluded to that most of the ten thousand colonists of Holy Terra did not in fact worship the Immortal Emperor at all!

The Crimson Tears maintained their strong connection to the Mechanicus Explorator fleets and at any time there is at least one company accompanying them to act as bodyguards on old human worlds now the abode of more sinister things. As a result the armour and weapons of the chapter are second to none. A fact that is constantly flaunted in the faces of the other chapters by their heraldry that is almost identical to their founders save the feathers of the wings are replaced with cog teeth.

The main purpose of the chapter taking that world as its own was to constantly de-stabilize the three minor ork empires in the neighboring systems. This is usually accomplished by destroying something belonging to one empire and blaming it on one of the others. Thus resulting in them spending the next decade trying to kill each other and being no bother to the rest of the Imperium. The other way is, when the first option is not possible, to kill the biggest warboss and as many of the smaller warbosses and watch one empire collapse in on its self and the other two fight over the plunder. It seems to have worked extremely well so far and has freed up time for the chapter to do what it does best; hunting chaos worshipers and cutting them down utterly.

In the forth year of the thirty-eighth millennia the succession of the Chapter Master was called into question. The two contenders for the title were the seasoned Vertren Skeevik The Balefisted and the _very_ highly accomplished upstart Edbert The Wrothfull.

Skeevik believed in the traditional teachings of their founders about Emotional Suppression and the Dissasosiation of Passion in an attempt to combat the Black Rage. As The Beloved Primarch had dome in his youth on Baal, giving him the inner peace to finally defeat the Deamon of Khorne before the Emperors palece.

Edbert believed whole-heartedly that to overcome the Black Rage you must first go through it and out the other side. They believe that the Black Rage is the divine Wrath of the Primarch and that it is a gift. They believe that it was a won when the Angelic Sanguinius bested the abomination Ka'Bandha and tore out its still beating heart. And as he did so the all its mindless hate and wroth were crafted by divine hands into a holy weapon that is carried in the blood of every Astarte to carry His flesh as their own

This caused a 6/4 (respectively) split in the Chapter. The Traditionalists that became loyal to Skeevik kept their Chapter Name, Hereldry (Blood Red and Silver Trim) and Fortress because they had the majority and neither side could much see the point in a civil war.

It was expected that the newly founded (402 outcasts are a chapter in their own right) Angels of Damnation would go off world and start up their own Chapter around their own beliefs. They did not. They moved to the northern continent. (Mostly because they were not given the Chapter Battle Barge and refused to beg a place on a trading ship like vagabonds)

It wasn't until the six hundred and seventy seventh year that the immense cogs of the monolithic Administratium finally added two and two together and they realized they were getting twice the gene tithe from one planet. After that the planet received some direct scrutinizing attention. Inquisitorial attention…


	2. Chapter 2

Classification Level: Alpha

Passcode: *****************

Passcode Accepted

WARNING! Unsanctioned reading of classified Inquisitorial Reports is punishable by execution.

**Report Into The Cynfyd Gene-seed Irregularity **

By Inquisitor Goodfry Pavelo Petrov. Ordo Militum.

Transit Means: Navis Nobilite Message Boat _Wings of Mercury_.

Upon my arrival on the planet by its main, and only, commercial star port I immediately travelled to the northern continent of Coldforge with all the haste that could be bought with the minimum of cost. To my dismay the only terrestrial way onto Coldforge is to hire the ferryboat for an extortionate amount of the local ration-credit based currency and I have been informed that any attempt to touch the atmosphere and enter air space will be treated as an act of aggression and be treated with proportional retaliation (_I_).

As you may have noticed I have decided to forgo any investigation into the Chapter Astartes Crimson Tears. Their decadely reports and gene-tithe have been consistent and punctual, often down to the hour, and have proven them selves time and again to be a clone of their parent chapter. (_II_)

The northern terminus of the ferry is a bleak little stone jetty jutting out of the end of a peninsula in a cold sea. It has all the life and cheer of a graveyard in the wintertime. There is very little worth mentioning on the continent. No indigenous population (_III_). No structures save the Fortress-monastery. No recourses worth the effort of extracting. In theory you could walk this land for a year and the only thing you would notice is that the local scrubby pine trees only grow to about three foot tall in the shadow of the occasional rock formation in a vain attempt to hide from the bitter arctic wind (_IV_). There is a path marked by the simple means of placing two lines of stones on either side of it. Although given that there are only two visible features on the landscape at all, discounting jetty because its behind you, it should be obvious that you follow the path in the direction of the big foreboding, ominous fortress some thirty miles distant.

The Fortress looks unsettling from the coast, I discovered that it looked terrifying closer to. The rock face is grey and I am almost certain for show. I suspect that it is a skin for a more durable material. Possibly plasteel or adamantium braced fero-crete. The doors are apparently large enough to fit a Gryphanone Pattern Baneblade through sideways. Or they seemed it at first glance. Upon closer inspection I realised that this was merely to intimidate visitors and is in fact just an elaborate carving on the wall. The real doors are at most twenty feet wide.

As I approached them I found that they were already ajar. As I was peering through the gap I heard a voice from _behind_ me bid me enter.

I will admit that I am going slightly deaf in one ear and perhaps can not see as clearly as I once could (You get past 400 and see how well your body holds up!) but for the life in me can not think of how he got behind me undetected. Its not like there is anything to hide behind. Entering there is a parade ground of sorts. It is quite large and hemmed in on all sides by the rest of the fortress structure. At one end there is a large statue of Sanguinius. The plinth upon which the statue is placed merges seamlessly with the building behind it. The door, of similar proportions to the main one, is built into the plinth.

The statue is a copy of the one in the Courtyard of the Crimson Tears chapter (_V_). It is not until you get closer that you realize the differences. The hands are clawed, the upper lip is in curled into a snarl revelling fangs, the blade is serrated and the wings look more like they are a part of him and not just something the artist stuck on as an after thought. All in all it looks a bit deamonic is my opinion. But we can't go around locking up all the inept artists. Yes, I know we acutely could, but it usually proves to be a waste of time and effort.

The marine who was escorting/guiding/taking me to the master of this chapter led me through a series of passageways that were labyrinthine to the point of bafflement and despite my considerable mental discipline and numerous tracking system bionic implants I was soon quite lost.

On the subject of art the inner walls of the fortress are painted with an amazing level of skill, the likes of which would outshine any art gallery or cathedral.

After about five to ten minuets of wandering I was brought before the master of the chapter.

He is biology seems to have drifted slightly from the basic Astartes Bio-form. I have never seen a Space Marine that was quite as _thin_ as Chapter Master Brand. Emaciated may be a better word. If there was any spare meat on his entire body it is under his fingernails. Also the eyes are edge to edge as black as his close-cropped hair.

After I had explained my purpose here I was given access to the hall of records where the various documented forms of history are kept.

Now begins the joyous task of documenting it all for the records of the Holy Inquisition.

(_I_)They shoot your space/aircraft down and take bets on where the corpses will land. Although it may be possible to make planet fall it is unlikely that it is possible in one piece.

(_II_)Moreover it's one of the chapters we use to train new members of the ordo in the correct forms of behaviour among the Adeptus Astartes.

(_III_)Unless you count the yaks and occasional wolf.

(_IV_)Which is unceasing and is said to drive you quite, quite mad if you are not strong of mind.

(_V_)The traditional one found on _every_ world in this part of the galaxy; sword point on the ground, hands resting on pommel of sword, wings at resting stance, body held proudly.

Thought For The Day: Fury is a two edged sword. Be cautious how you swing it.


End file.
